The academic has committed to summiting Mount Kilimanjaro next year to raise funds for disadvantaged girls. The announcement was made at Mandonsela’s 56th birthday dinner, organised on Friday by the Imbumba Foundation, where friends, academics and human rights activists celebrated the milestones she has achieved.
Not shy of a challenge, former public protector Professor Thuli Madonsela has a new mountain to climb.
Madonsela will join a group that will summit the highest peak in Africa on Human Rights Day, 2019. Next year Trek4Mandela will host two climbs again, the other on Mandela Day, July 18.
The initiative is in support of raising funds for keeping girls in school during their menstrual cycle as many have to miss classes because of a lack of sanitary pads. Guests were told the dinner was to honour Madonsela who was “hardly celebrated” despite her remarkable contributions to the nation.
Human rights defender and environmental activist Catherine Constantinides said: “Thuli has over-extended herself in her drive to help others. When I feel overwhelmed by my work I look up to her and I dip into her amazing selfless leadership, the legacy she has built and continues to, and I draw strength.”
A former colleague of Madonsela in the public protector’s office, Bonginkosi Dlamini, described how she devoted herself to her pursuit of social justice.
“Madonsela was an underground Umkhonto weSizwe cadre. So those who criticised her for the investigation into state capture should have known that all her life was shaped by her commitment to defending human rights and fighting anything that threatens social justice. She has always believed in a better country for this generation and future ones.”
Source: IOL News
